March 17, 2011 - Today, St. Patrick's Day, the ISS crew unpacked the first Roboanaut Crew Member, also known as R2.

"Patrick"
came aboard in his container with the last Discovery Mission, February
25, 2011. Over the coming months, this first robonaut in space will be
put through the paces as human crew members learn how to work with him.

NASA plans on periodically upgrading R2, it will be
attached
to a pedestal on the space station and it will work in place. By year’s
end, one or two legs may be installed to allow R2 to move around the
station. A single leg could be easily attached to the robotic arm
outside the space station so it can assist astronauts during
spacewalks. In time, R2 could relieve astronauts of EVA assignments.
Unlike humans, robonauts will not have to go through time-consuming
pre-breathing steps. EVAs are risky and tiring. He doesn't need rest,
food, relaxation, recreation. So one robonaut can do the work of two or
more, at far less maintenance expense, greatly increasing overall crew
productivity. Robonauts will be in the forefront of lunar and Martian
outpost construction, and take over many surface activities for which
humans would have to wear heavy spacesuits, and need to be regularly
relieved.

in
late, 2004, after having just been elected President of the Moon
Society, I brought up the idea of the Society sponsoring a workshop on
“Human-Robotic Synergistics” only to be ridiculed by a newly elected
director. Shortly after, he resigned. The point was, and is, that the
debate over whether humans or robots should explore space is pointless
and absurd. Our respective assets are quite complementary. We will do
far more, reach farther out, together than either could separately.

Robotics
has come a long way in the past six years! And the promise is becoming
real. Robotic assist-ants can relieve humans of tasks that are
dangerous, boring, tiring, repetitious, etc. And they do not need life
support, rest, entertainment, or socializing. They will not only pave
the way for humans, but work side-by-side with humans after crews
arrive, with future settlers also.

Whether the word “robonaut”
sticks, or becomes replaced with the earlier “’droids” (short for
androids) is immaterial. The evolution of humans and robots working
together is now well underway. Robotic assistants can take care of
chores that are boring, tedious, repetitious, and/or dangerous. They do
not need food, rest, sports, relaxation, or entertainment. They do not
require life-support in transit or on the job. They do not produce
wastes that need to be treated and recycled.

As for R2, the
coming year will see it undergoing tests to make sure the trip to the
space station caused it no trouble. Astronauts aboard the station will
have a chance to get used to R2 and learn to work with it/him. In time,
both will become comfortable working together. We need to get to the
point where we can trust robonauts as reliable helpmates. No one can
predict how long that will take, as adjustments in the robonaut’s
capacities and abilities may be needed. In the real world, needs emerge
which might not have been foreseen.

One big challenge for NASA
engineers has been to retrofit all of the robot's electronics to
withstand radiation in space. They also worked to make Robonaut 2 as
"smart" as possible. R2 has some 38 Power PC process-source, including
36 embedded ones. The embedded chips are running in the machine's
joints: its hands, shoulders, waist, elbows, neck and five large joints
in each arm.

What’s ahead?

We can expect to see
robonauts fully integrated into ISS crews, becoming comfortable and
reliable as partners, with a significant increase in overall mission
productivity. Meanwhile, we will probably see robonauts become common
in upper income households (as in the Jetsons cartoon series.) The
“humans vs. robots” debate will become a curiosity of history. Both
sides will have won, and the future of space activities will unfold
more quickly and at less expense.

Some science fiction
scenarios foresee humans in danger of replacement. Some see “Borg-like”
transformations of humans. We see robonauts becoming faithful and
enabling companions to humans, a path that dogs have been down long
ago. Robonauts will hasten and deepen the pioneer settlement of space
frontiers. Science-fiction stories that do not include this partnership
will become "dated". We have lived to see the day when this brighter,
more promising future was introduced!

In
recent issues of Moon Miners' Manifesto and MMM-India Quaterly, several
articles on this subject have been featured. Look for this new space
age to become ever more exciting and to unfold at an ever accelerated
space, thanks to our new enabling companions.

Robonauts
will help us open the Lunar and Martian frontiers. They will become
even more essential as we pioneer ever more extreme environments:
Mercury, Venus, Ceres, Europa, Titan, and beyond. We head into ever more exciting times!